The 2024 season got Dan Lanning’s Oregon rolling high with pride. After all, it has been one of their most successful seasons in school history. Unfortunately, this season they will not be having their team leader, QB Dillon Gabriel around. And college football knows the impatient feeling to find out the answer to ‘Who’s next?’
As HC Lanning will have to make the big decision, Ducks’ offensive coordinator and QBs coach Will Stein talks about the time frame within which Oregon will have Gabriel’s successor. The race will be in between the trio – Dante Moore, Austin Novosad, and Brock Thomas, who are vying for the top spot. Meanwhile, Moore’s future comes under the analyst’s radar.
Oregon Ducks’ hunt for a new leader
The Ducks are already looking forward to making noise in 2025. But before that, they need to have a team leader. Well, the ceiling is pretty high for whoever steps in. All thanks to Gabriel. As a redshirt senior in the 2024 season, the quarterback completed 326-of-447 passes for the Ducks for a career-high completion percentage of 72.9. It also happens to be the second-best in Oregon’s single-season history and third-best in the FBS. So, Lanning and Stein have already set out with pen and paper grading the options. During a press conference on March 15, Stein stated how the QB debate is “challenging at times in a good way.”
He continued, “Dante’s in year two. Austin’s in year three. Brock Thomas is in year three. Luke Moga is in year two.” Now what Gabriel served was truly unexpected. After all, bringing such talent on the gridiron, that too in his first year, was truly commendable. On that note, Stein admitted, “So there was challenges in that aspect too for me and for our staff. But these guys have been professional from day one. They attacked us all season like champs.” Moore, Novosad, Moga, and Thomas did not have much on-field experience.
But they learned under the most experienced quarterbacks in college – Gabriel and Bo Nix. Now what about the question that the fans have been eagerly waiting for? Stein assured, “I think the sky’s the limit for that group. I do feel like we have guys in there that can win games for us, and we’ll figure out over the next, you know, five, six months, who that guy’s going to be running out against Montana State.” Well, we all know why the stakes are high.
A year after Nix broke the record for most starts (61) made by a college football quarterback in 2023, Gabriel broke that record in 2024 for the Ducks, with 63 starts. Plus, both of them were finalists in the Heisman race. As the Ducks now turn the page, Moore is anticipated to be the starter for Oregon next season.
Can Dante Moore channel the Dillon Gabriel Effect?
The redshirt sophomore spent the 2024 season being Gabriel’s biggest disciple. Even though the competition is going to be neck-to-neck, Moore has starting experience from his true freshman season at UCLA in 2023. So, he is equipped with the big weapon, experience, and the upside as a former top-five recruit in the country in 2023. Back at UCLA, he came up with a completion rate of 53.5% of his passes for 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Even though he is yet to get a full-time opportunity in the QB role, in spot appearances Moore completed 7 of 8 pass attempts for 49 yards. While waiting for his turn in Lanning’s program, he did oomph up his gameplay learning under veteran Gabriel. Now, can we see a Gabriel effect in Moore? Analyst Cody Bellaire stated, “Dillon Gabriel is a guy that’s seen more college ball than pretty much anyone that’s ever suited up in a game before. So if any of that rubs off on Dante Moore, paired up with his natural arm talent, then the Ducks should be excited to watch him throw dots to none other than Evan Stewart, who is really in a put-up-or-shut-up type of season.”
Sitting on the bench, Dante Moore has absorbed Will Stein’s offensive philosophy. Now that he fights for his QB1 spot in Eugene, he carries with him a piece of advice given to him by the 2010 Heisman Trophy winner. It was former Auburn star Cam Newton. Moore recalled, “Cam Newton always told me you don’t have to do nothing special to be special.” So now, all eyes are on Oregon as Dan Lanning prepares to crown his next signal-caller. Will it surpass the Dillon Gabriel era?
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